Stock Photos For Sale, 500 Sold

With any hobby sometimes you need to find a way to keep yourself motivated. I first got heavily involved in photography in College. Buy some bit of luck, I was walking around campus casually taking snapshots when I ran into this guy who was taking photos for our college yearbook.

He asked me if I was a serious photographer since I had my Dad's bag of 35mm gear. We got to talking and he asked me to join the yearbook staff and it turned out to be a great way to hang out and learn quite a bit about photography.

After college, and the yearbook days I needed to find another reason to keep myself motivated. When I made the switch to digital photography in 2003 I began looking at selling pictures in the stock photography market. This is a market for photos that are used primarily by advertisers. On such sites you can buy generic photos of apples, or cars, or people on the beach, or whatever you need.

I looked around for a bit and found a few stocks sites where you could sell your work. I found one called iStock and I figured I'd try it out.

We'll quite a while later, I've just sold my 500th stock photo image on the iStock website. I can tell you I definitely won't get rich selling my photos on the iStock site, but it has been a fun way to keep myself motivated.

Cheese, Crackers, and Beer

We have a lot of left overs from a party we had during the recent festival. That means bizare meals to clean the fridge.

Lunch yesterday was a Ham sandwich with crackers and blue cheese, and cheddar cheese. Not too bad. Although dinner tonight was a little strange.

• Small piece of lasagna
  
• Small Chicken kebab
• Watermelon
• Piece of Cake

Add a glass of red wine, and you've got........more room in the fridge.

Oh the strange things one eats when one is uninspired. I'm not even inspired about the blog today, as I am basically echoing a blog of a friend who noted he was also cleaning out the fridge lately.

Ferris Wheel At Night

Carnival Rides at Badenfahrt

Patience and perseverance can be crucial in capturing a good photo. 61 photos later, you get exactly what you wanted. Then you get home and think you should have taken just one more.

If you have never had that feeling, then you aren't a true photographer at heart.

Lights Out, the Party's Over

Badenfahrt 2007, the final minutes

Thank God, time for some sleep.

YouTube Video, 200 Views in 2 days

I haven't been much for youtube as far as posting my own stuff. I usually only post things I want to share with those that read my blog. Once in a while I look at the number of 'views' my videos have had and for the most part the numbers are inline with my blog readership.

The last video I posted including some footage of the 'surprise guests' on the rock stage was a little different. I posted the video sometime late on Friday after the show. Some time on Saturday I started getting e-mails from youtube notifying me of 'comments'.

This was the first time I had every received any comments on my videos. I checked it out and by Sunday I had just shy of 200 views and 5 comments in Swiss German. I can't read the comments because there are in Swiss German, however I can tell you that 200 views in two days far outpaces my blog readership.

We had another 'surprise guest' tonight. I grabbed a couple minutes of footage with the camcorder. Just for giggles I'm going to post the video and see if it generates the same volume of traffic.

I'm Gonna Call the Cops

We have been wondering who would be playing the rock stage this evening. In the official schedule there was a slot from 10:30 to 11:30 for a surprise guest.

About 9:30 we decided to sneak out for an hour or so before the surprise guest to grab a drink, and relative peace. I did however want to try to make it back for the main event.

We got back to the gate to the backstage area right at 10:30. The music hadn't started yet. We flashed our backstage passes and were let in. We walked the few steps to our front door and were greeted by 10 uniformed policemen at our front door. It was a little strange to be honest. I figured they were there to protect the 'special guests.'

We politely ducked between a few officers and went up to our apartment. Then it all started.

I'm not sure who the act was. I'm sure we'll hear about it tomorrow. It was some kind of rap group. I grabbed a video camera and posted some shots on youtube.

Rock On!

So the party continues. I just went on youtube to see if anyone had posted any videos of Badenfahrt. Suprisingly there are a few.

This one is boring, except the last 30 seconds or so shows a performance on the stage that is in front of our apartment.

Fahrt On!

Schlossberg Platz, Badenfahrt 2007

The party continues. I am really starting to get tired. Only 3 days left. I can't wait until it is over. Tonight was probably the biggest crowd I have seen in the square below our apartment. It was just wall-to-wall people.

A few nights ago when I was coming home I tried to get into my apartment but some guy was giving me trouble because he said I needed a backstage pass to get through the street where my apartment is. I pulled a set of keys out of my pocket and told him that they were my backstage pass. He gave me trouble for about five minutes before he let me through because he said I should have received passes.


Well, the next day my wife found something in our mailbox. Sure enough we had our own set of backstage passes. Surely not because we requested them. We need these because our apartment door is literally backstage. It is ridiculous. I love the slogon too. The passes say Baden Fahrt On! wow, that is great! Those are surely going into the scrapbook.

Good thing I was carrying my pass tonight. I needed it to get back into my apartment. Crazy I tell you.

Good Photos in Challenging Places

Isolated Ceiling Shot of a plam tree with interesting background

I always like a challenge. Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows I enjoy photography. The key to a good photo is taking a challenging situation and finding a good composition. Sometimes you are shooting and you don't even expect anything good to come of it. But if you are creative you can turn water to wine.



The photograph above was taken really as an after thought. As I was wandering around the Badenfarht festival I saw an interesting looking surf board and palm tree. I took a couple shots, recomposed a few times, and came up with this absolutely boring picture. Luckily I focused my attention on what had originally caught my eye, the lights and the palm tree. After isolating those objects I capture the photograph above.



Here is another challenge. I walked to the bar nextdoor and positioned myself behind a huge speaker and the tree. I setup my tripod with the hopes of catching a few candid shots of people interacting at the bar. Unfortunately the lighting was bad, and the interactions between the people were pretty boring. Nothing much going on. Again I looked for some subject to peak my interest.


Again I turned my attention to what had originallz cuaght my eye. I decided to point the camera straight up at the fantastically colored concrete ceiling. After a few test shots I got exactly what I had seen in my minds eye as I was trying to compose the photograph.

I'm really pleased with these two photos. I think they really turned out well considering the surroundings.

Swiss Parades, 100% Hausgemacht

Martial Arts Club in Badenfarht Parade 2007

Swiss parades in our town are really a sight to see. As part of Badenfahrt 2007 there was a parade last Saturday afternoon that highlighted all the crucial elements of a Swiss parade. Order, creativity, and in some cases the truly bizarre.


Many of the floats in the parades in Baden are home made. They build the floats on top of tractors or flatbeds no doubt on loan from local farmers or businesses. I don't think this is much different than small town America.

The Swiss do seem to be a bit more creative though. I liked one float depicting mid evil knights. The designers obviously had two objectives. Build a float to participate in the parade, while at the same time preparing for the post parade party. Yes, that is a really pig roasting on top of the float. If you look behind the knights left arm, you'll also see the keg for the post parade fest. Nice touch.

Americans would do anything to avoid physical exertion in a parade. It would not surprise me to see a Dodge ram pulling a small radioflyer wagon of stuffed animals in a small town America parade. The Swiss take it to the other extreme.


Whether it is two bicycles pulling or chariot, or in this case two guys pulling a card game. What?! Two guys pulling a card game? Yeah, that was a bizarre float. I didn't really understand the point of this float. It didn't really fit with the theme. But that is just how it goes sometimes I guess. This one looked like a last minute entry to me. I can just see it now. Four drunk guys at 10:00 pm thinkin, darn we gotta make a float for the parade tomorrow. Wouldn't a rolling poker game be cool?.

Yeah right.

My Backyard, Statue of Liberty and All

Badenfahrt 2007 - Schlossbergplatz, Baden

I haven't posted many pictures of Badenfahrt 2007 yet. I think the main reason is I was too tired to pull out my camera. After a few days of warming up to the celebration tonight seemed like a perfect night to get out. There was a light rain so I figured the lighting would be really great, and there would be slightly less people. The evening proved to be pretty good from a photographic perspective.



My backyard as I call it is filled with people to all hours of the night. This shot of the Pop/Rock stage should give you a feeling of what I am dealing with. If you've been to visit before you'll recognize our building as the one just past the rock stage. Yeah, thats the one, with the Zürich sign on it. As I said, our balcony is basically right on top of the stage. Love it or hate it, I have no choice but to attend the fest all week long.



Tonight a Swiss band called Vivian is playing. I believe there lead guitarist is a fairly famous Swiss guy named Adrian Stern. They are actually pretty good, I like their style.

There are few spots where you can escape the loud sounds of the rock concerts. This foutain looks so serene, but don't be fooled its louder than heck right here! I think tomorrow I'll have to wander a little farther from the apartment and get some more pictures. I have a feeling I'll have a good week for pictures.

Swiss Party - Meatloaf, Bread and Grappa

We received a what I would call a special invitation to our neighbors for dinner last night. She was having a small dinner party to view the Badenfahrt fireworks from her balcony, about 8 to 10 guests in all. All of them Swiss German. Except of course us.

I mentioned before that our neighbor had offered that we start using first names at our August first party. Ever since, I have seen a real change in the way we interact. She is much more open, more friendly, more relaxed.

A perfect example is that we had received an informal invitation to the party a while ago. And as she was a little busy she even just left an invitation for us on the day of the event as a post-it note on our door.

This may not seem like much, but in the Swiss culture this little trivial act is definitely not the formal way to do things.

When we arrived, everyone was very pleasant, and very Swiss. Introductions were in broken English. We didn't necessarily initiate English conversation, it was just that the Swiss party goers obviously knew we weren't Swiss, and thought it polite to address us in English. It was a nice touch, but was not necessary.

After a glass or two of wine and grappa my German improved. I amazed myself at my ability to participate in the conversation. I even made a few jokes in German and people laughed. (I hope at the joke and not my bad accent).

My wife was also doing well in German. At one point we were talking to another younger couple (probably 5 to 10 years are senior). I had been talking with the husband and my wife was talking with his wife. Then the husband starting addressing my wife in German. His wife immediately interrupted him and said in German "You don't need English, she speaks German."

That was really a great moment. As was when one of the women said in amazing 'You speak really good German.' While I think that is surely a bit of an overstatement, I see that the locals are definitely impressed when you try. Thez always give you an A for effort. I think this is the case because many expats don't seem to put much effort into the language aspect of the experience.

For me personally learning German has been a tremendous joy. I honestly believe that by speaking just a little bit, I have probably opened the doors to more experiences for myself. The relationship with our neighbor is a perfect example. If I didn't use every interaction with her as an opportunity to practice my German I don't think we would have been invited to such wonderfully Swiss dinner party.

Fireworks Tonight (10:30 CET) 3:30 EDT

I was looking at the schedule for todays Badenfahrt events and I realized that there will be fireworks tonight over the castle. What a great chance to pan the webcam over to the castle and see how it works.

For for my family, if anyone is interested, hook up to the Cam at 3:30 EDT and see if you can spot anything. I don't think it will be fantastic as it is a little cheapo cam, and it will be dark. But whatever, it might be fun.

Check the link Under the Links header at the right of this page. Or just click here.

Taking the Cam offline

I found that last night I had to move my BadenFahrt cam off the balcony. The only way I could keep in out line was to keep the door open and I was not going to have any of that at 4:00 am.

I was watching the logs from the cam and I saw about a half dozen people connect. Sorry if all you saw as the clock tower. That wasn't my intent but I just had to move the camera.

I need to get about 10 more feet of cable to get the camera right. I'll probably try to run to the store tomorrow.

For now, You'll get a picture of the clock tower.

BadenFahrt Cam

I've been playing with a Webcam this afternoon. I scrounged around for some spare cables and some free software and I was able to get this up and running.



The gray roof in the lower left corner of the screen is the roof of the pop/rock stage. Sorry I've haven't got the audio worked out yet. Do for know all you'll get is pictures.

Interesting Night

Last night we went to a friends to escape the madness here. Even though we hadn't yet experienced the madness we thought it would be good to go elsewhere the first night just in case it was really bad then we wouldn't get too depressed.

Anyway we were at an expat party and we didn't decide to leave until shortly after midnight. We made the 5 minute walk to the train station and we basically had missed the last train. Damn, what next.

We'll we caught a cab to the main train station (about a 10 minute ride) Then as we are running for the train we get up right next to it on the platform and it pulls away. Damn, what next.

We find another train going to Dietikon which is about halfway to our place. We ride that one out, and end up getting to Dietikon looking for a bus or a train but the only transportation seems to be the next train to Baden at 2:27 am. Damn, what next.

We wait.

Finally catch the 2:27 to get home about 2:45 and find that our apartment is still rockin' and the streets are packed. We decided to shower up from the long day, move the mattress from our guest bedroom into the foyer - the only internal room with no outside windows.

So in the bed by about 3:30 (music still blaring). I slept in there until about 6:00 when I got up and then moved back to my room because it was finally quiet.

Boy am I looking forward to this week.

Quiet Before the Storm

We took a walk around town this evening to enjoy the last quiet evening I expect for the next 11 days. All over the city, the little outdoor bars and restaurants are lit up for the big show starting tomorrow. It looks like in most of the temporary structures the crews that have been building them for the past two weeks were having small celebrations before the mobs descend on our fair town.

I was talking to a friend of mine at work that was reading the local paper. There was an article about the event. The paper said they are expecting half a million visitors over the course of the 10 day celebration. Considering the entire country is I believe 7 million that is amazing. Not to mention the fact that our town itself only has 16,000 residents.

I better go to bed, this is the last night of good sleep I expect for a while.

Toilet Seats & Glasses

Did you ever see a pair of glasses that looks like toilet seats?

I haven't, but I find it bizzare that the German word for glasses, Brille, can also means toilet seat. Technically the full word for toliet seat is toilettenbrille which would translate to toilet glasses, but I have also heard it used in a shorten form of just brille as well.

Speak of toilet seats, I really like the swiss concept of urinals. The Swiss really have it down. I would say about 95% of the urinals here are what I would call hands free. There are either motion activated, or have a foot flush. By foot flush I mean that there is usually a button about ankle high on the wall just beside the urinal that one can kick to flush.

That is a really great concept. I don't know why I think its so great, but it seems really great.

Excuse me Ma'am, I Think You Forgot Your Pants.

Last year we missed the Street Parade in Zürich so we figured we better go this year. I remember at this time last year another friend of mine had gone to the street parade and he brought back a few pictures, which frankly I was surprised to see.

The event seems to be an excuse for people to walk around half naked and get drunk while dancing the night away. I would say it is much like Mardi Gras in New Orleans with a little more tolerance for skin.

We went to the parade route and saw two floats go by, and pretty much decided we had seen enough. The floats were flatbeds with DJ's and about 50 people dancing in various states of undress. Must people were dressed as if they were on a beach in skimpy shorts or swimsuit tops.

Despite the strange clothing and behavior there were some 'families' there with children. I was also surprised to see that the willingness to expose skin did not seem to necessarily be tied to age either. I saw more than a few people that if I had seen them on any other day surely I would not pick them out to be liberal with their clothing.

We were out shopping with some friends this morning and mentioned we were going. They told us they had been, and once was enough. I would have to agree. Glad I saw it, no desire to really see it again.

12 Minutes to New York

I came home from work today to find that I had a lady liberty in my front yard. The theme of the upcoming Badenfahrt celebration is world cities. This means on the way to work I passed a mini, Eiffel tower, and huge statue of what appears to be Napoleon, and know a lady liberty.

They are really going all out and there are still 7 days until the event starts. I can't even imagine what the really party is going to be like.

Grösser Lebowski

I finally found the DVD I have been looking for for some time. I found the Big Lebowski. Since it is one of my favorite movies I figured I might learn a little German.

Of course like a good student of a foreign language you learn the really useful stuff first. If you know the movie you can probably figure out the following quotes:

Sie haben mein Teppich gepisst.

Ich bin nicht Lebowski, Sie ist Lebowski. Ich bin der dude. Also, "die Dudeheit", oder 'el Duderino'

When I bought the DVD I actually took a risk, they only had the Dutch version. I took a chance that "Druit" was German in Dutch. The woman at the counter asked me if I really wanted the DVD when I was buying it because she didn't know of Druit was German. But I figure I would take a chance.

The DVD cover is all in Dutch. It is actually an interesting language it looks a lot like a mix of German, French and Spanish, but I couldn't make much sense of it.

The Nose Pick

Two days ago I was handed something. It was something that wasn't very pleasant. If I could have gotten rid of it immediately I would have. It was like one of those boggers you have as kid that you kind of try to flick off of your finger, but it just won't go away, no matter how hard you try.

Like a good game of tag, I finally caught up with someone and screamed 'Your It!'. I hate to pass things like that. But sometimes, when you 'smelt it', and you know for sure you didn't 'dealt it' it is somehow satisfying when the real culprit admits to it.

Speaking of which, the new joke around the house is Badenfarht, the 10 day celebration to start in a weeks time. It has become the excuse for everything around here. What kind of name is 'Badenfarht'? It sounds horrible. Literally translated it means 'Baden Goes', which I guess in itself has a certain bathroom humor to it.

I was looking around the Badenfahrt website the other day and I did find some movie trailers for the event. I really like trailer 1 which is a pretty good animated representation of the street outside of our appartment.

I Have No Friends

I was on the youtube.com site today poking around and I found that youtube knew something about me that I did not know. Apparently I have no friends.

That is mean to say, isn't it?!?

Kein Ausländern (No Foreigners)

We got a flyer in the mail the other day about the SVP's (political party) initiative to remove foreigners from Switzerland.

Since our German is at a children's level we don't always understand everything we read. When I first read the flyer and saw the picture of the white sheep kicking the black sheep I had the impression that the Swiss wanted to get rid of all 'Foreigners'.

It was quite bizarre to be on the other side of the immigration debate. Here I am, the outsider, and the local government is debating if I can stay, or if I should go.

One thing that this experience has done for me is shown me that being the foreigner is not easy. It is not easy to follow the rules, and get the proper forms, papers, and permits to live in a different country. This is especially hard when you don't speak the language. But, as a guest, I feel it is my responsibility to respect the local rules and recognize that I am a guest, and I don't the same rights when I choose to live here.

At second glance, I realized that the note we received was really not against me at all. It was actually focused on the true black sheep in Switzerland. Those foreigners that had entered the country without the proper permits, or who had criminal records. For now, I am safe. But, I surely have some more German to learn.

Recovery

I had a rough end of the week. Between the August 1st party and then a work social function at the Casino the next night I was was really dragging come Friday night.

I believe our August 1st party was a big success. We had so many people show up. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I did not get to spend enough time speaking with all of my guests. But watching everyone, It seemed like everyone was engaged in conversation for most of the evening.

There were three big 'announcements' if you will that made the evening interesting.

First off, we finally learned our neighbors first name. After nearly a year of addressing her as Frau such-and-such, she introduced herself by her first name. I was shocked.

Secondly another set of friends announced that they were expecting a baby. I was shocked, but happy for them. They informed me that it was planned, but given his previous plans to attend graduate school I guess I didn't expect kids just yet.

Finally, another friend of my wife was married since the last time we saw her in the spring. She had an amazing 2 or 3 day engagement and then a civil ceremony in the US during her summer vacation in the US before returning to Switzerland. She was trying to remain in Switzerland with her Swiss boyfriend but she was having trouble getting a permit so they decided to get married. It isn't quite as crazy as it seems because they actual meet in NY when he was working there abroad so they have known each other for some time. We were actually expecting her to come back from the US engaged, but she moved a little faster than we thought.

They were both very happy about their marriage and are planning a church wedding next summer.

The fireworks at the end of the night were really fantastic and we had the best view in the city. I even heard a few people mention they were already going to mark their calendars for next year because they enjoyed it so much.